When I introduce students in my introductory politics class to power and inequality I ask them to read a short magazine piece by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist. “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” details growing inequality in the United States – a country where a few years ago one percent of the population claimed nearly 25 percent of U.S. income. Stiglitz suggests that American society suffers from the inequality obtained by the power of the wealthy. “One Percenters” are generally disinterested in seeing government look out for the vast majority of Americans and offer them good public education, good public health care, and stronger environmental protections.

The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need – if only we had the eyes to see.